I’m moving in two weeks so that means things have been busy and I haven’t gotten as much reading done as I’d like. I’ve been either arranging stuff for the move, packing, finishing up business here, or gaming in my free time. I’m a bit behind on the reading part. Here’s three manga orders I received in the past month or so.

Here’s the first order that arrived about a month ago. I’ve made a decent dent in it.

I’ve had some new manga for a few weeks, but have been too busy to really dive into them yet. So by default, this is my annual spring break manga binge order. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to read these before summer hits, but with the work load lately, I’m not counting on it. Working every weekend will do that. I’ll probably do a little more around here once May hits. In addition, during the summer, I get to figure out how to pack and move ALL this manga without it being a disorganized disaster. I’m happy to move, but it will be a challenge. I have a great idea on how to tackle that problem–let’s buy MORE.

Today, I received something that is now the pinnacle of my manga collection. It’s a signed print from my favorite mangaka, Sugiura Shiho, featuring the characters from Shuuten Unknown. A second print was also included. My full name is written on the print, so that was whited out in the pictures.

This was part of a campaign ran by Mag Garden to promote the release of Shuuten Unknown Volume 1. If someone purchased a copy of Shuuten Unknown 1 and the October issue of Avarus, they could send in for a set of prints, including one signed by the mangaka herself for a small price. The online bookstore MangaOh took this one step further by offering to send in the required proofs of purchase and forms to Mag Garden if someone purchased both products on their website for a small fee. Mag Garden sent the print to Mangaoh and they forwarded to the buyer’s address. The brilliant thing here is that it works well for foreigners! So I was all over that and now have my precious. I love it. I’ll have to get it professionally framed at some point.. once I identify a shop worthy of touching my precious.

I recently bought the (stupidly expensive) limited edition of the otome game, Seishun Hajimemashita. I rarely go for limited editions, but this was clearly the only way to go for this game. So it better not suck! Either way, I’ll get to listen to Yoshino Hiroyuki use his punk-ish voice, so I can’t go wrong.

After spending almost ten years following the adventures of Rakan and Chigusa in Silver Diamond, I was lost when it came to an end. I followed the manga from the beginning and it was hard imagining the hobby without it. And then I saw the first images of Sugiura Shiho’s new manga, Shuuten Unknown (Last Stop Unknown). I learned to let go and embrace the excitement of seeing your favorite mangaka present a brand new setting and characters. We’re in for another fantastic ride.